The Marrakech Film Festival has grown alongside Morocco’s flourishing film industry. When the festival debuted in 2001, the local scene produced just five films a year. Today, that number has surged to around 40, reflecting a variety of initiatives aimed at nurturing and sustaining new generations of talent.

Programs like the Atlas Workshops have been instrumental in connecting emerging auteurs onto the international stage, while initiatives such as the female-focused Tamayouz Foundation — founded by three Moroccan filmmakers and two producers — work to remove barriers to entry. The foundation provides entry-level training for women interested in the industry, along with financial support and mentorship in directing, screenwriting, production and post-production, and has also experienced significant growth in recent years.

Here are four filmmakers from four very different backgrounds who are making waves in Marrakech.

** Meriame Essadak** – Producer

Meriame Essadak has worn many hats throughout her career, moving from education to foreign services to marketing before breaking into film through incubator programs with the Tamayouz Cinema Foundation and the Atlas Workshops. She currently has three features in development, including Mohcine Nadifi’s psychological thriller “La Piste.” The project won the Tangier Film Festival pitch competition in 2024 and was one of five titles selected for a Franco-Moroccan co-production session in Cannes — meetings that sparked serious interest from several French companies.

“Mohcine initially approached me to co-write the film, which I did,” she explains. “But when we started looking for a producer, I took the bull by the horns. I told him, ‘You have me. I’m your warrior, and I’ll defend this project body and soul.’ As a producer, I only take on projects that hit me hard, because they demand sleepless nights and immense mental energy. If it doesn’t make me vibrate, it’s not worth it — the connection has to be physical.”

Essadak is also developing “Potes,” directed by Hamza Atifi, and “Rajol,” from Adnane Rami, both of which have gone through the Tamayouz professional lab.

“Potes is about Moroccan students who go abroad to study and struggle to reconnect with home,” she says. “It’s the voice of a young generation that sees itself as resolutely modern, only to discover abroad that certain expectations and gazes remain unchanged.” Meanwhile, “Rajol” explores “what it means to be a man in Morocco today, in a society where women’s voices are increasingly heard.”

Driss Ramdi – Actor

Born in Morocco and based in France, Driss Ramdi first broke out with a supporting role in Mehdi Ben Attia’s Berlin-selected “Je Ne Suis Pas Mort,” earning a spot on the César shortlist for Most Promising Newcomer. Since then, he has built a steady career with roles in Rachel Lang’s “Baden Baden,” Emmanuel Hamon’s “Escape from Raqqa,” Emmanuel Finkiel’s “A Decent Man,” and the popular Canal Plus rap series “All the Way Up.”

This year, Ramdi steps into the spotlight for the first time as the tortured protagonist of Meryem Benm’Barek’s “Behind the Palm Trees,” which premiered in competition in Marrakech. Looking ahead, he is determined to build on the emotional intensity and authenticity he tapped into for Benm’Barek’s film.

“Now I want to work as deeply as I did on this role,” he says. “I want to do more and more interesting films. I’m very particular: I refuse cliché roles — the terrorist, the meaningless thug. I choose carefully. I want leading roles. I want to meet directors, dive into projects where you really invest yourself.”

Ramdi is also exploring a lighter, more playful side through stand-up comedy. “That actually scares me the most,” he admits. “I’ve been writing a lot — with notebooks scattered all over my home — but direct contact with an audience still gives me chills. I can stand in front of Brad Pitt and be super focused, super calm. But on stage… that’s my next challenge.”

Youssef Michraf – Director

Born into a self-described “lower-middle-class family,” Youssef Michraf left his native Casablanca at 18 to train as an engineer in France. But once he arrived, he felt compelled to follow his true calling. He studied film at La Sorbonne before earning a directing spot at the prestigious national film school La Fémis, and soon set out to launch his debut feature, “Sweet Disposition.”

The film blends body-horror with a coming-of-age narrative, centering on a young boy so ashamed of his modest origins that he invents an elaborate ruse — one that soon spirals into a literal corporeal transformation. Michraf presented the project at the Atlas Workshops in 2021, winning the Artekino International Prize, and has since sought to reposition the film outside the French system after moving to Los Angeles.

“American friends are launching a production company,” he says. “They have financiers ready, and things are going well. They’re much more open than the French — genuinely enthusiastic about the complexity and specificity of the film. In France, films set in Morocco have to fit certain expectations, and I found that suffocating. There’s not enough openness to nuance or complexity, whereas the Americans I met really valued the film’s identity and felt it was worth protecting.”

**Leyna Tahiri **– Director

Leyna Tahiri began in politics, driven to “understand the world.” She soon realized she needed another language: “the language of emotions, of cinema.”

After working as a development executive for “In Therapy” writers David Elkaïm and Vincent Poymiro, Tahiri turned to Moroccan television, contributing to serialized dramas while developing her own personal projects.

Preparing her next short, she also brought her feature, “Earth and Ashes,” to this year’s Atlas Workshops. The film follows a tense judicial process after the death of a France-born architect, leaving his Moroccan family — and the Gallic courts — to decide whether he should be buried according to secular or Islamic traditions. Nabil Ayouch and “Calle Malaga” producers Amine Benjelloun and Jean-Rémi Ducourtioux are on board.

“I realized this situation happens often,” Tahiri says. “It also raises the question: is a funeral for the dead, or for the living?”

“Like many children of immigrants, I ask myself a lot of questions,” she adds. “I was raised in France, built my career in Morocco, and want to explore those cultural dynamics. Nabil also comes from a dual culture, so it resonated with him immediately. So many people share similar stories from their own lives — what happened to my aunt, my grandmother. Everyone has a story that echoes this film, which makes it feel universal.”